Beware of the Environment
The impact of our surroundings on our personal growth by Kushagra Tayal, Account Executive
‘Body is what the body is fed. And by the same token, the mind is what the mind is fed’ — David Schwartz
Taking from the words of David Schwartz, I have often pondered over the idea of success. What makes people successful? Is it their surroundings? Their network? Their work ethic? Or just good old plain luck. Curious, I set out on a journey to explore and understand, what truly enables a person to attain success.
After being inspired by prominent individuals, I noticed there was a constant in all their lives: the people around them, at every phase of their life.
You, me, our bosses, our parents, and everyone else was born a blank slate. But as we all grow, different situations and surroundings mould us. While this is obvious, seldom do we realise the pivotal role that our surroundings play in our upbringing.
To elucidate: we are an aggregate of the stimuli that we are exposed to, on an everyday basis right from our birth. So, our environment is the family we grow in, the school we go to, the college we attend, the social circle we have, the events we choose to be a part of, the content we consume, and so on. And all of these things influence you, directly or indirectly. The superior the quality of each of these, the better person you become.
So, here’s a proposition: what if we consciously alter our surroundings to suit our goals, and use it as a catalyst to change ourselves for the better? The key question is, what kind of ‘mind food’ are you feeding yourself?
Mind food is our environment a.k.a our surroundings which influence our conscious and subconscious thoughts. Nutritious mind food vs. junk mind food will determine our habits, attitude, personality, and character. Interestingly, the magnitude of our thinking and the greatness of our goals will also be determined by our habitat and surroundings.
Inevitably, we all evolve as days pass. And this presents us with an opportunity worth grabbing. For it can help us achieve any of our goals, whether earning more at the workplace, make us likable amongst our social circle, scoring more academically at high school/college. Each goal we meet helps us set and achieve bigger goals, equipping us to guide others to live a more worthy life, at the very least.
By way of examples:
Prajakta Koli, one of India’s biggest YouTubers, known for her light-hearted comedy videos, didn’t just become one by doing nothing. A graduate of Mumbai University, she uploaded her first video on Youtube in February 2015. She didn’t know where she was headed, but she absorbed the things around her and put it into her work. She made the best out of her given environment.
Sachin Tendulkar didn’t just become one of the biggest names in the history of cricket with the blink of an eye. The people around him had contributed immensely in making of the legend. He was motivated to play cricket by his elder brother, Ajit Tendulkar. He had one of the best coaches to learn from, Ramakant Achrekar. He had a very supportive uncle and aunt, whom he stayed with during the early days of his career.
All your heroes became big by being a little extra by way of work and by way of building a support system. They have an environment of powerful positive reinforcement which helps them bounce back strongly even when they’re down. They seek inspiration from the leaders to master their art, day in and day out, experiment with multiple things, and are self-aware about their loopholes. But hey, there’s a lot that you now know, that you can do, to improve yourself.
Having said that, I would also like to share an excerpt from my personal life. I was brought up in a conventional thinking family wherein there was a predefined set of the right and the wrongs that one should or should not do. For instance, having a girlfriend is inappropriate, staying out late at night is unacceptable, and having a stable white-collar job was of critical importance. All of this used to bug me a lot and still does.
I wasn’t comfortable living like this. And all of these restrictions and heated conversations were turning out to be bad ‘mind food’. So, to bring some changes to my life, I started reading books and watching videos on YouTube which helped me widen my thinking and as a result, I fed my mind with richer experiences and ideas. I also had a chance to stay away from my family for a year and was able to dig deep and find my true self.
Finally, I would like to list some of the nutritious mind food I have consumed, which helped me find my way:
- Try to choose & pick your social group very very carefully. Because that might just determine what your attitude and thinking might be like in the future times.
- Feed your mind with vast experiences and new ideas. Your mind loves consuming fresh and quality food too. Being open-minded today seems hard, but you can train yourself.
- Do not shy away from putting yourself in uncomfortable situations. The more you do so, the greater is the bandwidth of the environment you expose yourself to.
- Try to be a part of a community/group out of the scope of your primary work. E.g. Since I am into advertising, I can explore being a part of a sports club/community.
These are a few things that you can try on to see the difference it brings to your life and then choose to continue or not. The more effort you put in to build a positive ecosystem for yourselves, the more you can thrive. It takes time, as does every pursuit worth the chase.
The need for it is at an all-time high at the moment because of the high levels of anxiety and depression surfacing due to the ongoing pandemic. Having a motivating terrain will help you achieve many things at once: it will keep you agile, keep you pumped up with energy, and more importantly give you direction to tread the path forward. Everyone has a choice: intentionally shape your environment, or be shaped by it.
